In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
It is, again, the Eleventh Month and the Eleventh Day coming up on the Eleventh Hour when the guns were ordered to stop across Europe one hundred years ago.
100th Anniversaries are a big deal. A full century has happened between the end of World War I to now. It made sense for the nations of the world to pause and gather at the memorials dotted across the battlefields where the fallen were laid to rest, and so many of the nations that fought on the Western Front - the allies of France, Great Britain, United States, the opponents that were Germany, Austria and Hungary - sent their leaders to stand for us in honor of those brave men who lost their lives.
Well, kinda. The United States tried to send our leader, but that just happens to be the Loser of the Popular Vote donald trump at the moment, and well...
The last minute cancellation prompted widespread criticism on social media and from some officials in Britain and the United States that Trump had “dishonored” U.S. servicemen.
The president was scheduled to pay tribute at a ceremony at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, about 85 km (50 miles) east of Paris, with his wife Melania. But light steady rain and a low cloud ceiling prevented his helicopter from traveling to the site.
If that sounds like a bullshit excuse, because you'd think our Marine One helicopters ought to be able to handle bad weather, or because there's this wonderful option call CARS that could have been used to DRIVE across France - c'mon, the scenery this time of year can't be THAT bad - then you'd be right. The weather wasn't bad enough to stop trump from sending his own Chief of Staff John Kelly in his stead.
“I helped plan all of President Obama’s trips for 8 years,” he wrote on Twitter. “There is always a rain option. Always.”
Despite the light rain, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel held a moving ceremony in Compiegne, northeast of Paris, to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the World War One armistice.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended his own ceremony to pay tribute to Canadian troops killed at Vimy Ridge, on the battlefields of northeastern France.
Instead, trump pretty much stayed in his hotel room all day and sulked and tweeted his conspiracy nonsense about Democrats "STEALING ELECTIONS ZOMG". trump could have easily done all that from his own worthless country clubs and not wasted everyone else's time and money on this trip.
Gods, what a waste of oxygen trump has been.
Either trump was terrified of standing in the rain - the LEAST any elected official could do to honor our soldiers - or he's completely forgotten how umbrellas work.
Yeah I know, cheap shot. BUT TOTALLY DESERVED.
It's deserved because every other President takes it as an act of honor to stand in the rain:
President Obama's Memorial Day ceremony at the National Cemetery in Elwood, Ill., was stopped temporarily, and then canceled outright, while a severe thunderstorm passed through Northern Illinois.
As lighting cracked and thunder clapped, the President went to the podium to tell the thousands in the crowd to seek shelter.
Holding an umbrella in a massive rain storm, the President told the crowd, "Excuse me, everybody listen up. We are a little bit concerned about lightening. This may not be safe. So I know that all of you are here to commemorate the fallen and that's why we're here. What we'd like to do is, if possible, have people move back to their cars, and if this passes in the next 15-20 minutes, I will stick around and we'll come up and start up the ceremony again. But we don't want to endanger anyone, particularly children in the audience. So I'd ask everybody to very calmly, move back to your cars. I'm going to move back to mine. We will wait to make sure that the thunder has passed. A little bit of rain doesn't hurt anybody, but we don't want anybody being struck by lightning.
"God bless you everybody. We will be staying here and will make an announcement shortly," he said.
from AP Photo
THAT is what Presidents do.
trump doesn't even TRY.
Not even when we as a nation need to honor and respect those who TRULY served our nation, both our fallen and our living soldiers.
It rains on our soldiers all the time.
from NPR
But trump will never care. For him, it's NEVER been about respecting others.
Edmund: George, the British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika. I hardly think that we can be entirely absolved of blame on the imperialistic front.
George: Oh, no, sir, absolutely not. [aside, to Baldick] Mad as a bicycle!
Baldrick: I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry.
The poppy flower grows when the seeds are disturbed, and the ground is turned, when a war rages.
Today is Veterans Day. Generally recognized as a day of remembrance for the soldiers who fought and for the ones who didn't make it back. On this day, the poemIn Flanders Fieldsis read, and the red poppy flower worn.
And as always, the final clip of Blackadder Goes Forth, one of the downest of Downer Endings a show ever had:
Oh to hell with it, here's the last scene of the BBC Comedy Blackadder Goes Forth:
Everything you need to know about war in 5 minutes.
That this was the closer of a comedy series remains heart-rending, only less so than the real-life madness that World War I really was. England lost over 800,000 of their young men to that war: entire towns wiped out of a generation of sons and husbands. In some ways, this war and not World War II - which in itself was a "Good" or necessary war and thus accepted with some cheer and satisfaction - is the more painfully remembered war in England. Because of the insane loss of life over a war involving treaties and the lust for empire (Britain's to defend, Germany's to win).
As for this show... in England this episode was shown originally on Armistice Day... It's called Remembrance Day there (Veterans Day stateside). They only had one complaint. Everyone else was probably too busy crying as the poppies rise up from the debris of No-Man's Land...
